Expert advice on choosing air conditioners for families with young children

For families with young children, selecting an air conditioner is not a simple task. It requires specific criteria to ensure comfort for the whole family while also safeguarding the health of the child.

1. Expert advice on choosing air conditioners for families with young children

For families with young children, selecting an air conditioner

For families with babies, calculating the area or volume of the room is essential when selecting an air conditioner, followed by choosing one with suitable capacity. Choosing an air conditioner with insufficient capacity for the room size results in inadequate cooling, leading to continuous operation, increased electricity consumption, overheating, and premature machine failure.

Users should use the following formula to calculate air conditioner capacity based on room area: Air conditioner capacity (kW) = Room area (m2) x 0.18 (kW/m2). Users should also note that they can multiply by 0.20 – 0.22 for living rooms or crowded areas with ample light. For example, for a room measuring 4.5m x 3m, the capacity = (4.5 x 3) x 0.18 = 2.43 kW.

In tandem with this, the choice of an air conditioner also depends on whether the room contains a lot of furniture, numerous windows, glass doors, or if sunlight frequently streams in (which would necessitate the air conditioner to operate more)... requiring a suitable capacity AC unit.

For young children, it's advisable to opt for an air conditioner with a gentle breeze mode to prevent direct cold air from blowing onto the child while still providing a cool and comfortable environment. Typically, each brand will have different names for this mode such as Gentle Cool Air mode on Sharp air conditioners, or intelligent eye feature on Daikin units...

With this mode, the air conditioner generates a pleasant airflow and operates at an extremely quiet level to not disturb the child's sleep. It's recommended to choose an AC unit equipped with a humidifying feature to help prevent dehydration when spending extended periods in air-conditioned rooms.

Alternatively, you could install a misting device to humidify the air if your preferred air conditioner lacks this feature. However, it's still important to regularly replenish fluids to ensure health and avoid dehydration for children.

This intelligent mode operates automatically, allowing the air conditioner to automatically raise the temperature after a set period to match the user's body temperature and environmental conditions.

Usually, after about 30 minutes or 1 hour, the temperature will increase by 1 degree, and then continue to increase to 2 degrees, maintaining that temperature level or increasing by 0.5 degrees every 60 seconds after activating the timer. Overall, each brand will have its own operation method but all aim to provide a good night's sleep for the whole family, especially young children.

Parents with children should opt for air conditioners equipped with mosquito repellent features. If you reside in Northern provinces with cold winters and scorching summers, it's advisable to choose two-way air conditioners to flexibly switch between heating mode in chilly winters and cooling mode in sweltering summers, providing a more comfortable environment for children.